


Spring Cleaning

by emungere



Category: Saiyuki
Genre: Gen, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-11-28
Updated: 2007-11-28
Packaged: 2018-02-27 07:45:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2684849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emungere/pseuds/emungere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hakkai meets Gojyo, post-Kanan. Modern AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spring Cleaning

Hakkai was on the porch, taping up the last box, when the UPS man arrived. In Hakkai's previous experience, the attractiveness of brown shorts tended to be overplayed by ads and sitcom housewives alike, but in this one case, reality so overwhelmed fantasy that he half expected to hear porn music at any moment. 

For a moment, Hakkai forgot his grief. 

"Hey," the man said. "Wow, you're sending a lot of stuff."

"Yes," Hakkai agreed. "A lot." 

"The whole house, looks like. S'gonna cost a bundle."

"I don't mind." It would cost nearly all his savings, but that hardly mattered. He wouldn't need it after today. "I'll help you carry it to the truck."

"You don't have to, I've got it." 

Hakkai helped anyway. There were nearly thirty boxes. The truck, nearly empty when they'd started, was full by the end of it. Both of them were sweating in the hot spring sun. Gojyo--the man had introduced himself around the fifteenth box--was almost glowing with exertion. The roll and flex of his arm muscles was a pleasant enough sight that Hakkai, distracted, forgot to close the front door all the way on his last trip. 

"Oh, hey," Gojyo said. "One more. I'll get it." 

"Wait--"

But Gojyo stood now in the doorframe, a light silhouette against the dim interior. Hakkai came to stand behind him. 

"All your stuff is gone," Gojyo said. 

The house was quite empty. Hakkai had packed the furniture off to charity shops weeks ago, shortly after the funeral. Bare wood floors shone dully. Curtainless windows eyed him with suspicion. 

"Yes," Hakkai said. 

"What's this?" Gojyo picked up the last box. 

"It's what she was wearing when she died. I thought I'd take it with me." 

"She was wearing a gun?"

"No. That's for me." 

"So...your wife kicked it, and now you're gonna off yourself?"

"She was my sister," Hakkai said, and waited for that look people got.  _Just_  your sister, they thought, as if it was somehow a smaller loss because he'd known her from the very hour he was born. People made no sense. 

Gojyo set down the box, solemn, with no trace of just-your-sister anywhere about his countenance. "I'm real sorry, man," he said. He shifted. "So. Where you sending all this stuff?" 

"You didn't look at the address?"

"India's India. I don't know where that town is or what it's like." 

"It's just a town. There was a book she liked that took place there. I looked up an address online. I hope they can make some use of her things there." 

"Just hers? Lotta boxes."

"Our things, then. Are you going to leave now?"

Gojyo rubbed at his face, smeared dirt across the bridge of his nose. "No. Guess I'll stay." 

"While I shoot myself in the head?"

"Yeah. If that's what you're gonna do."

Hakkai blinked at him. "But...why?"

"Because nobody ought to die alone. Because I don't want to die alone. Maybe it's good karma or some shit." 

"The police might question you." 

"I'll be okay. You're the one who's gonna have powder residue all over your hand." 

"Oh, yes. I suppose you're right." Hakkai took up the gun and back across the room, but Gojyo made no move to take it from him. Hakkai leaned against the wall. He cradled the gun to his chest. "Do you enjoy your work?"

"Just started today." 

"Oh. What did you do before that?" 

"Petty theft, mostly."

"Are you going to steal things from my boxes after I'm dead?"

Gojyo cocked his head to one side. "I might. You couldn't stop me."

"I might haunt you."

"No, not you." 

Gojyo folded his arms over his chest. They watched one another across the empty room. 

"Ever think of offing yourself in India? You could make sure all the stuff gets there."

"How would I get the gun through airport security?"

"Bet you could get one there. Or slit your wrists. It's more classical, like." 

Hakkai slid slowly down the wall until he was sitting against it. "And who would be there to make sure I don't die alone?"

Gojyo knelt beside him and took the gun away, sent it skittering through the sunbeams on the honey colored floor. 

"I got nothing planned," he said.


End file.
